Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit

Panorama Park At Sunrise

By the Rev. Dr. Ed Hird

At 5:34 a.m, a shaggy grey and white St. Bernard wanders along. Two black-necked geese are gliding overhead. One solitary shining white cloud awaits the rising of the Summer Sun over the Deep Cove Bay.

Everywhere I look from Panorama Park, my eyes are pierced by trees, a ring of unending trees like a green cocoon that encircles and protects Deep Cove from the intrusions of that other world. There is a stillness about Deep Cove that grips me and will not let go.

Thirty fuzzy grey baby geese, with their adult protectors, casually swim up to the Panorama Park beach, and begin voraciously pecking on the grass by the beach. All is silent, all is still, all is at rest. Not a human is in sight. Not a car can be heard. The only sound is the unending swirl of water crashing down over the rocks in Panorama Creek,

At 6.00 a.m., the Summer Sun is now bursting forth over the nearby mountains. The warmth of the blinding rays touches my park bench, and my heart soars. How jaded we’ve become to the miracle of the returning sun. How grateful our ancestors must have felt to welcome back the day after a dark fearful night.

As I sit on my Panorama Park bench, I am reminded of the well known song Morning has Broken.. “Morning has broken like the first morning. Black bird has spoken like the first bird. Praise for the Singing, Praise for the Morning, Praise for them springing, fresh from the Word.”

How easily I become jaded to the beauty of Deep Cove. How hardened I can be to the wonderful gift of God’s natural beauty. How busy and distracted I can be in the rush and hub-bub of the daily frenzy. Thank you Jesus, for Deep Cove, for Panorama Park, for the beauty you have put right here in our neighbourhood to draw us back to You, to Your peace. Happiness is seeing a beautiful sunrise and knowing who to thank!

To receive a signed copy within North America, just send a $20 cheque (USD/CAN) to ED HIRD, #102-15168 19th Avenue, Surrey, BC V4A 0A5, Canada.

– In order to obtain a signed copy of the prequel book Battle for the Soul of Canada, please send a $18.50 cheque to ‘Ed Hird’, #102-15168 19th Avenue, Surrey, BC V4A 0A5. For mailing the book to the USA, please send $20.00 USD. This can also be done by PAYPAL using the e-mail ed_hird@telus.net . Be sure to list your mailing address. The Battle for the Soul of Canada e-book can be obtained for $4.99 CDN/USD.

I was the Rector of St. Simon's Church North Vancouver, B.C for 31 years, from 1987 to 2018. Ordained in 1980, I have also served at St. Philip's Vancouver and St. Matthew's Abbotsford. My wife Janice and I have three sons James, Mark, and Andrew. I was the Past President and Chaplain for Alpha Canada. While serving as the National Chair for Anglican Renewal Ministries of Canada, I was one of three co-signers of the Montreal Declaration of Anglican Essentials http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/arm05.htm
For the past 31 years, I have been privileged to write over 400 articles as a columnist on spiritual issues for local North Vancouver newspapers. In the last number of years, I have had the opportunity to speak at conferences and retreats in Honduras, Rwanda, Uganda, Washington State, BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, and Ontario.
My newest book For Better, For Worse: discovering the keys to a lasting relationship, coauthored with Janice Hird, can be purchased at https://www.amazon.com/Better-Worse-Discovering-lasting-relationship/dp/0978202236/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535555614&sr=8-1
My sequel Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit, with a foreword by Dr JI Packer, is online with Amazon.com in both paperback http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/097820221X/ref=redir_mdp_mobile and ebook form http://tiny.cc/tanhmx .
In Canada, Amazon.ca has it available in paperback http://tiny.cc/dknhmx and ebook http://tiny.cc/wmhmmx .
It is also posted on Amazon UK (paperback and ebook ), Amazon France (paperback and ebook), and Amazon Germany (paperback and ebook).
Restoring Health is also available online on Barnes and Noble in both paperback and Nook/ebook form. Nook gives a sample of the book to read online: http://tiny.cc/vj3bmx . Indigo also offers the Kobo ebook version: http://tiny.cc/kreonx . You can also obtain it through ITunes as an IBook: http://tiny.cc/1ukiox
The book 'Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit' focuses on strengthening a new generation of healthy leaders. Drawing on examples from Titus' healthy leadership in the pirate island of Crete, it shows how North Americans can embrace a holistically healthy life.
In order to obtain a copy of the prequel book 'Battle for the Soul of Canada', please send a $18.50 cheque to 'Ed Hird', 102-15168 19th Avenue, Surrey, BC V4A 0A5. For mailing the book to the USA, please send $20.00 USD. For more info, please click on www3.telus.net/st_simons/nsnews030.html